HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Today is the final day of the Saving Shelter Pets fall auction. Find art, jewelry, gift certificates and more!!

Bid Now! Watch for any last minute additions, too!

Biddingforgood.com/savingshelterpets

All proceeds after fees are deducted go directly to the Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., Puppy Promises program. Each $50 sponsors one youngster into the program. Through the program, pet owners who are in the process of surrending their litters to a rural county kill shelter are approached with another alternative:

1) If they are willing to take the pups home for 2 more weeks, the pups are vaccinated at SSP’s expense. These two weeks are a quarantine period after vaccination. The survival rate of pups in the partner county facilities is low, due to the chance of contracting parvo or other illness, or euthanization due to space.

2) The puppies are then transferred to a reputable nokill rescue that carefully screens adopters. They typically have an adopter waiting list for pups. When they have healthy puppies to match with new homes regularly, it encourages local residents to adopt rather than buy from a breeder. Since the puppies are vaccinated and are sent to the rescue without medical issues, the rescue can use the adoption fees to care for dogs rescued locally that have higher medical bills and to care for dogs that take longer to find a home.

3) SSP returns to the surrendering family and spays and neuters all adult pets in the house – both dogs and cats. This prevents a repeat occurrence and helps families keep their existing pets. The pets won’t multiply, are less likely to wander away from home. Certain cancers are also completely prevented.

It is a win/win/win all the way around. Paired with a spay and neuter program for adult dogs and cats, SSP is working a multifaceted approach to reducing and halting euthanization of adoptable pets.

So what are we waiting for? Biddingforgood.com/savingshelterpets

End time is 11:00 PM Eastern Time.

I have some exciting news!

Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., is holding its Fall auction online.

Donatons are currently being sought to auction off in this event. If you are an artist, collector, business owner, or just an individual with something to donate…. send an email at info (at) savingshelterpets.com with your contact information, and a description of the item you would like to donate. You may submit a clear, quality photo and ship the item at the conclusion of the auction to the winning bidder, or, if you prefer, mail the item to an SSP volunteer who will ship the item. Deadline to submit items is November 4th, so if you are interested in contributing, make like a duck and…nevermind. Tell em you head about it on HoundsGood! For bidders, the auctions starts November 7th.

The last auction netted $1242.00 after fees. Let’s dust off our shelves, dig through our china cabinets and our wallets to make this one even better…can we go for $1500?

Examples of Popular Items of the Past:
Gift Certificates to your business or popular retailers
Dog/Cat toy and supply gift basket
Autographed books
Collectibles
Handmade jewelry, handbags, accessory
Christmas Decor – Keepsake Ornaments and Tree toppers
Hotel gift certificates and getaways
Art work
DVDs
….Whatever your imagination inspires.

Please spread the word so we can make this auction a huge success for all the dogs & cats helped! Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., a 501(3)c charitable organization, has several wonderful programs including Spay & Neuter, Puppy Promises (puppies are intercepted from ever entering a shelter environment), Bernie’s Buddies (help for heartworm positive shelter dogs), TNR programs for feral cats, Rescue & Transport and more!

This auction will benefit the Puppy Promises Program. To fight the overpopulation problem at the shelters they work with, the Puppy Promises program intercepts pups before they enter a shelter environment, where they often contract Parvo and pass away or sometimes are euthanized for space. If the owner who is dumping the pups agrees to take them home for another 14 days, SSP vaccinates them and at the end of the quarantine period, places them in rescue. In addition, the mother of the pups as well as the other adult dogs and cats are spayed or neutered at SSP’s expense to prevent additional unwanted litters. A family’s pet number remains manageable, making the chances of them abandoning their adult pets much more slim. The now-neutered adult pets are also less likely to wander from home, reducing pet losses due to traffic accidents, poisoning, wildlife injuries and more accidental litters.

Click the banner to travel to the SSP site, or click HERE to read previous stories from this blog on SSP.

About Saving Shelter Pets:
Saving Shelter Pets (SSP) strives to eliminate euthanasia as a method of population control for homeless companion animals, by providing no-kill alternative solutions and pro-actively addressing the problem of pet overpopulation.

SSP is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization with supporters nationwide. Please see our FAQs for more information.

Through August 31st, merchants of handmade and vintage goods band together in Support of Saving Shelter Pets, Inc.

Each sellers pledges a minimum of 20% of their sales during those days as a donation to SSP.  The donations fund a spay and neuter clinic in Murray County, Georgia, where Spay Days are desperately needed as part of a multi-faceted approach to end reduce euthanasia of adoptable pets.  Shop and make a difference!

For a complete list of participating shops, click HERE.

Saving Shelter Pets, Inc. is a registered 501(3)c charitable organization. Proceeds will go towards their very important Spay and Neuter Program. For more about SSP, visit past articles at HoundsGood.com HERE or visit the official website, Savingshelterpets.com.

On Monday, May 9th, the gavel opens on the Spring online auction to benefit Saving Shelter Pets, Inc. The auction roster, at this writing, includes 51 items.

Highlights include:

• An autographed copy of the Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• $50 Gift Cards to OfficeMax and Solay Wellness
• $150 Gift Card to Fikorus jewelry
• 18k Gold Jewelry
• 1 Year Membership to Care.com’s Pet or Child Care Services (up to a $140 value).
• iPhone and iTouch accessories
• ModCloth.com women’s accessory pack
• Gift sets for canines and avians
• Several vacation packages

..and much more…

To bid, or to peruse the current auction catalog, visit http://savingshelterpets.cmarket.com.

About Saving Shelter Pets:
Saving Shelter Pets (SSP) strives to eliminate euthanasia as a method of population control for homeless companion animals, by providing no-kill alternative solutions and pro-actively addressing the problem of pet overpopulation.

SSP is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization with supporters nationwide.

Chloe is an adorable little doxie mix pup who was the result of an accidental litter. Her family couldn’t care for puppies and their other pets and contemplated surrendering her and her siblings to the county pound. Luckily, they were intercepted by a Saving Shelter Pets volunteer, and offered amnesty in the Puppy Promises program. SSP’s Puppy Promises program intercepts puppies before they are dumped at the shelter and offers the owners an alternative. If they are willing to keep the puppies at home for just 14 more days, SSP, will vaccinate them on the spot, spay the mother dog, and transfer the puppies to a reputable rescue where new families are carefully screened. On top of it, SSP spays or neuters the other cats and dogs in the house, too. They added that to the program when they noticed litters coming from the same families, just a different dog.

You may wonder why this is done. Don’t people WANT to adopt puppies from shelters? Young puppies often die in county pounds when they catch parvo or another stress-related illness. If they don’t, then it is not entirely impossible for them to face euthanization. Crowded shelters with little foot traffic hope that puppies generate adopters, but often there just are not enough adopters, and they often experience the same fate as adult dogs. Luckily, there is such a thing as a no or low-kill shelter, but not in the region these pups come from.

Chloe was to be transported to a rescue that already often has adopters waiting for their new friend. However, before she was relinquished by her owners, her leg was broken. SSP arranged for the necessary surgery Chloe needed for her leg to heal properly. Little Chloe is ready for a family and will be adopted in no time at her new rescue. She is hitching a ride with her brother, Joey and the “newcomer” Puppy Promises pups from this month as well as several adult dogs pulled from kill shelters and others that have had no success in a local adoption, but have adopters waiting elsewhere.

Chloe’s surgery is paid or and she and her brother are completely sponsored. However, they have some friends who are hoping to make the trip with them. Consider sponsoring a deserving dog to get a home before the holidays.

For previous HoundsGood.com stories on Saving Shelter Pets, click here.

I have some exciting news!

Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., is holding an online auction next month.

Donatons are currently being sought to auction off in this event. If you are an artist, collector, business owner, or just an individual with something to donate…. send an email at info (at) savingshelterpets.com with your contact information, and a description of the item you would like to donate. You may submit a clear, quality photo and ship the item at the conclusion of the auction, or, if you prefer, mail the item to an SSP volunteer who will photograph and ship the item. The auction begins October 4th, so if you are interested in contributing, make like a duck and…nevermind.  Tell em you head about it on HoundsGood!

**Please Note** Due to the fees involved with the charity auction site we will be using, we can only accept items valued at $20 or greater at this time. This will not be held on Ebay, but rather, SSP will have a dedicated auction “page.”

Please spread the word so we can make this auction a huge success for all the dogs & cats helped! Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., a 501(3)c charitable organization, has several wonderful programs including Spay & Neuter, Puppy Promises (puppies are intercepted from ever entering a shelter environment), Bernie’s Buddies (help for heartworm positive shelter dogs), TNR programs for feral cats, Rescue & Transport and more!

Click the banner to travel to the SSP site, or click HERE to read previous stories from this blog on SSP.

Saving Shelter Pets., Inc. is competing for a 25K grant in the Pepsi “Refresh Everything” challenge.  Pepsi is choosing 25 charities at the 25K grant level based on a “refreshing” idea.  The lucky charities are the top vote getters.  You can vote every day.  Read below to find out how!

With $25,000, SSP plans to run 20 spay and neuter clinics.

Chatsworth, GA, and the surrounding area of Murray County is an economically depressed area where the local animal control facility has a high kill rate and much of the local population knows little about the consequences of pet overpopulation.  With $25,000 from Pepsi, Saving Shelter Pets can significantly reduce the animal shelter population in this area.  We plan to conduct ten free spay/neuter clinics in the coming year (for family pets and also feral cats captured by local residents with our assistance).  By doing this, not only will the turn-in rates at animal control be lowered with fewer litters born, but we will also be able to educate pet owners about the importance of spaying and neutering their pets and the basics of responsible pet ownership.  Previous clinics of this type have been successfully run by Saving Shelter Pets, and all were very well-received by the participating residents.

The funds will be divided as follows:

No staff will be compensated during the clinic. All medical and support staff are volunteers. Design of educational materials is also donated.

Travel to http://www.refresheverything.com/savingshelterpets to vote! Vote every single day now through September 30th!

The 2010 Saving Shelter Pets Etsy fundraiser is still going strong, but hurry – it ends August 26th. That’s Thursday, as in two days from now. You can buy a variety of vintage and handmade items from participating sellers, and 20% of the proceeds will go to Saving Shelter Pets for a Spay and Neuter clinic.  SSP does not duplicate the work of local groups, but targets under-served areas where no low cost spay/neuter option exists.  While, yes, folks who make spay and neuter a priority find the funds, but in these areas, there are folks who desire to but it may be a matter of medications or food or spay surgery. There are some may think, “Why do they have pets if they cannot afford it?”  Sometimes animals just “show up” or are “taken in” that are abandoned by moving neighbors or things were better when the dog or cat came into the family.

I can’t wait to see the cool stuff you bought!

Previously, I mentioned the 2010 Saving Shelter Pets Etsy Fundraiser. As of this writing, eight sellers have stepped up to the plate, representing wares such as handmade jewelry, vintage clothing, housewares, dreamcatchers and more. SSP is looking for a few more sellers to add to the corral. Maybe it could be you?

All sellers will be promoted during the sale, which will run from August 16th through August 26th. 20% of the proceeds from each store will be donated to Saving Shelter Pets. If you are worried that it will cut into your bottom line – don’t worry. The extra promotion will definitely make up for it.

If you are an Etsy seller who would like to participate, please email info @ savingshelterpets.com. If you don’t have an Etsy shop and would like to shop during the sale, visit http://www.savingshelterpets.com/etsy2010.html to make your wish list now, and start shopping after 8 A.M EST on the 16th.  Sellers are bound to add a few more items during the sale, so keep checking back.

From August 16 through August 26th, merchants of handmade and vintage goods will band together in Support of Saving Shelter Pets, Inc. Each sellers pledges a minimum of 20% of their sales during those days as a donation to SSP. There is still time for Etsy sellers to sign up. Simply email info @ savingshelterpets.com and express your interest. Remember to include your shop name and link. When the promotion is over, tally up your sales and submit 20% via paypal to SSP. It’s as simple as that. During the promotion, SSP and their friends will promote the sale on their website, blog and other social media outlets such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. It’s a win for SSP, for you, and the animals.

Saving Shelter Pets, Inc. is a registered 501(3)c charitable organization. Proceeds will go towards their very important Spay and Neuter Program. For more about SSP, visit past articles at HoundsGood.com HERE or visit the official website, Savingshelterpets.com.

Don’t forget to SHOP from August 16 through the 26th. You might be introduced to some great items from sellers that you haven’t discovered yet. Stay tuned on HoundsGood for seller profiles as the event draws near!